


Chinese Whispers

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-10-08
Updated: 2009-08-08
Packaged: 2019-01-19 15:00:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12412542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: "Harry Potter is dead". A series of drabbles on the apparent death of the Boy Who Lived at the Battle of Hogwarts, and the people it affected. Complete.





	1. Ginny: The Girl He Left Behind

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

**Chinese Whispers : Ginny**

They told me you were dead. They told me you were dead, and my heart stopped beating and my bile threatened to rise up in my throat and choke me... then did, because your heart was mine too. They told me you were dead, and I was wretched, I was grieved; I was furious, I was wronged. This wasn’t the way it was meant to be. You were the boy I’d loved for nearly all my life, and we’d already said goodbye once, one too many times, but I’d let you go. I let you be the hero you had to be because wasn’t that the boy I’d fallen in love with? Too many deaths, and yours was just another.

They told me you were dead, and I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry, I wanted to die along with you in the deep, dark winter of grief taking over my autumn. This time you were meant to have come back, victorious and free to be mine. You weren’t meant to be lying there, dead and deceased in Hagrid’s arms, his giant tears baptising you.

They told me you were dead. 


	2. Dean: The People Who Had Depended On Him

**Chinese Whispers: Dean**

They told us you were dead. They told us you were dead, and they told us to surrender, to lay down our arms like cowards and beg to be spared at the hem of his disgusting feet. They told us you were dead, but I couldn’t believe it, wouldn’t believe it. You were our leader, our hope; it just wasn’t possible. They’d taken Dumbledore, they’d taken Fred, they’d taken Colin and Professor Lupin and Tonks and so many others, but you, you were invincible, charmed, endlessly lucky. You were all we had left.

They told us you were dead, and it seemed like a film gone wrong. Role call read villain, princess, sidekicks one and two, but the hero was missing and we no longer knew what to do. The curtains were going up, the crowd was screaming your name, but we were just players on a stage with our lines wiped blank. We were Gryffindors, roaring lions of self-righteousness and purpose - we were lost. 

They told us you were dead. 


	3. Neville: The Boy Who Could've Been

**Chinese Whispers: Neville**

They told me you were dead. They told me you were dead, held your limp, lifeless body out like a prize won at a fair, Bellatrix Lestrange laughing with outright glee. I couldn’t stand it; I had to do something to defend your honour, your dignity. Because that’s what you were to me - you were honour, and nobility, and pride. The lies spilling like poisoned apples from that monster’s lips would not convince me now or ever. 

They told me you were dead, and even while the masses grieved, your last words guided, no, pushed me forwards until I was running at him without a clue in my mind. Kill the snake, you had said, and with those words echoing in my mind, I was driven forward with a destiny, a purpose. I would kill the snake no matter the cost, because I was a Gryffindor, this was our fatal legacy, and cold metal of steel was in my hands. 

They told me you were dead. 


	4. Voldemort: The Other Half of Him

**Chinese Whispers: Voldemort**

She told me you were dead. She told me you were dead, and at last, seventeen years coming, I had won. A thousand attempts and thrice-defied, now you were dead, and I was free to play God to this worthless world. She told me you were dead, and I was delirious, I could laugh. I did, long and luxuriously, rapture, triumph, and power twisting and swirling into a delicious assimilation of absolute glory within me.

She told me you were dead, and it had to be shared, it had to be spread. The world and everything in it was mine for the taking now that you were gone, I thought as I swept into the Great Hall. _Look at your boy now, isn't he a wonder?_

But then there you were again, standing as defiant and proud as your parents had all those years ago. I couldn't stand it.

She told me you were dead, Harry. You were meant to be dead.


	5. Narcissa: The Mother

Chinese Whispers: Narcissa

I told him you were dead. I held my fingers to your throat, felt you breathe, but the words spilling out of my cherry lips were lies. He had put my son, my only son in danger, and had to be paid back in kind. I had kept silent, withstood his despotism and contempt all year long, but now, at last, it was time for his comeuppance, and I told him you were dead. He imagined himself as somehow transcendent, superior to the mere mortals who were but pawns in his game… But I knew the truth. Who was he but a half-blood, born to a degenerate mother and a Muggle father?

I told him you were dead, for no one dismissed we, the Malfoys, of most noble and ancient bloods, who had been most loyal, most useful to him. I had only to ask, and then you were there, whispering in my ear that yes, yes, my son was alive and in Hogwarts, and revenge fell like crimson apples into my hands. I told him you were dead, and waited for his world to fall down around him as I stood to the side and watched with vindication. 

It was me. I was the one. I told him you were dead.


End file.
